Turnabout Abroad
by ropfa
Summary: For the Court-records 2014 OC contest


"All rise!"

The judge's gavel banged, signaling that court was in session. There was a larger gallery than seemed usual, Basel noticed – not for the defendant himself, but rather the prosecution and defense, each of whom had traveled more than ten thousand kilometers to be there.

Sean Basel, attorney at law, gazed across the room at his opponent. She was dressed in a bright blue ball gown, like some princess out of a fairy tale. On her head she wore a pale white tiara, inlaid with the finest jewels that recycled plastic could offer. Her hands twisted nervously around a gaudy scepter (also plastic) as she eyed Basel. This was not the first time they had faced each other. She didn't have to say anything, but he knew what she was thinking: _"You followed me here."_

Basel waved friendlily to her. She glared back in a way that he guessed was supposed to be intimidating, but wasn't quite as effective as she probably hoped. Honestly, the kid was far too cute to look even remotely menacing. "It might help to drop the gown and tiara, if that's what you're going for," he thought with a smirk.

"Now, I hear we have some guests from a far away country!" announced the judge, looking between the two benches. "This court is always welcome to have visitors from abroad. I know a young man from Germany who has taken up a permanent position right here in this district. Are the defense and prosecution ready?"

The prosecutor didn't miss a beat in announcing herself. "I, Mona Van Reaghann, grandniece to his majesty our king and twenty-seventh in the line of succession, do declare that the prosecution is ready! I come bearing greetings from our country—"

"Whoa! Royalty?" Basel interrupted. With the way she introduced herself, he could just imagine trumpets blaring a fanfare.

Mona's narrowed her eyes. "I was not _finished_, Mr. Basel."

"Oh? Sorry about that. Would you like to continue?"

Before she could respond, the judge butted in. "R-Royalty? In my court? Y-You must forgive me, Your Majesty! I had read the name of the visiting prosecutor, but I didn't recognize it! If I had, you would have been given a much warmer welcome!"

Mona's left eye twitched. She seemed to be considering whether to be angry at the judge for daring to not know who she was or at Basel for deliberately drawing attention to the fact that nobody here knew who she was. She probably thought of a hundred possible responses in the short awkward silence that followed, before choosing to confront Basel directly. "Mr. Basel! You never cease to bewilder me. You honestly expect me to believe that you traveled halfway across the globe…to the same city I had…on the same day…to defend a suspect in the same case as me…and it was all a coincidence?"

"All yes, Princess. Pretty crazy, isn't it?"

In fact, it hadn't been a coincidence at all. Despite Mona treating the trial like a diplomatic mission, it was really more of a foreign exchange program. An international group had been sponsoring young, talented attorneys to go abroad to learn more about foreign legal systems. Luckily for Mona, she fit that description quite nicely (if by 'talented,' you meant 'her family's influence got her a free pass'). Back in their home country, she had constantly bragged to their colleagues about her opportunity to prosecute in the distant and exotic city of Los Angeles. For that, you couldn't really call it stalking that Basel had found out. However, it admittedly was that he had followed her there. He briefly thought about how creepy that must seem (especially since she was still young enough to be in high school), before dismissing the thought and justifying it by reminding himself that Mona likely deserved any embarrassment she was about to receive.

Mona bent her scepter until it looked as though she might snap it in half. "Y-You insolent…! Don't you 'Princess' me! I get enough sass from you back home. I hardly need it here, where I least expected to find you!"

The judge appeared startled. "B-But Your Highness…Aren't you a princess?"

"I can forgive you for that, as you, being an American, are clearly ignorant of my country's royal line. No! I am not a princess."

What a wonderful first impression she must be making.

"She'd have to be a bit higher up than number twenty-seven for that, Your Honor."

Mona drew back her scepter as if to hurl it across the room at Sean, then seemed to think better. Clutching it back to her chest, she gritted her teeth. "Twenty-seventh is better than YOU will ever be."

Sean sighed. It was true. He wasn't even part of the line of succession — not officially, at least. Mona was his half-cousin.

She would never admit it. Not publicly. None of the royal family would ever admit it. The part about never having a chance at the throne wasn't what bothered him so much as it was that his father's side of the family had nearly completely ostracized him. He had been born out of wedlock with a common woman as his mother, and therefore was an embarrassment to the royal line. His birth father hadn't so much as spoken to him in years. Mona did her very best to always remind him that he was lower than even her. She had to feel more important than _somebody_, he guessed.

"Well, I suppose that's true, Princess. You are, after all, so much more high and mighty than me."

"I am glad you admit it."

The sarcasm was lost on this one.

"We truly could spend all day speaking of your greatness…" he paused just long enough to see Mona's expression change as she finally realized he wasn't serious before continuing. "…But enough about us. The court doesn't need to hear our backstories. I'm sure our time would be much better spent discussing the case at hand. Wouldn't you agree, Your Honor?"

"Hmm, yes. That does sound better. Let's start with the opening statements!"

Her grand introduction having been ruined, Mona shuddered in frustration as she began to speak. "This case could not possibly be more clear. It is an open-and-shut incident of a man murdering his lover to hide their affair from his wife. I have evidence…witnesses… And I will prove with them that he killed the victim, Diana Thursday."

The suspect, a small man with a ratlike face stood nervously at the witness bench, eyes jerking back and forth. His name was Melvin Finnegal. He wore a pair of dirty, bent eyeglasses and a short-sleeved button-down shirt that probably had already been worn three days in a row. His hair was somehow simultaneously neatly combed and a greasy mess. He had a long, thin moustache that made Basel uncomfortable just to look at. In other words, he looked about how you'd expect a guy named Melvin would look.

Mona was apparently proud that her speech was making Finnegal jittery. "Look at him! Guilty! Truly guilty! That man is without a doubt GUILTY!"

Redundancy aside, it was probably true.

Of course, that didn't matter to Basel. Clients paid well, whether they'd committed the crime or not. He wasn't so naive as to not defend somebody simply because they _might_ be guilty. If he only defended people he believed innocent, he'd be nearly broke and living off a diet of instant noodles. The law demanded every man receive an attorney, so who was he to refuse? Somebody had to do it.

Yet the true joy came from trumping his opponents. There was always a certain satisfaction in watching the twinkle go from the prosecutors' eyes as they realized they were about to lose. Perhaps he was a bit immature to treat a court of law like a game, but nobody was perfect.

He especially enjoyed besting Mona. Not only was she just so over-the-top dramatic when things didn't go her way, but there was also the fact that _she was part of the family that had estranged him_. It would be too much hassle to try and humiliate the royal family directly. Mona, however, had made the silly choice of entering Basel's own profession, so he could make a fool out of her whenever they appeared in court together. And he made certain to keep up-to-date on her investigations so that would happen frequently.

The judge pondered the prosecution's opening statement a bit. Then he turned to Basel. "Does the defense have anything to say?"

Basel lifted his head in acknowledgement. "Your Honor, we'll find that even in light of the prosecution's evidence, things can always be seen in a different way. Is Mr. Finnegal truly an evil, despicable man? Maybe. I will leave that up to the court's judgement. But we must keep in mind that everybody has a story and a voice and that things are not always how they seem at first. It is the defense's position that Mr. Finnegal is not deserving of any sort of punishment."

The judge nodded. "Thank you. It's true that we must always take every position into account. The court appreciates your statement, Mr. Basel."

"Oh…? Is that how it is?" snapped Mona. "You didn't thank me for _my_ opening statement."

The judge's eyes widened, wondering what he had done wrong. "I-I didn't mean any offense, Your Highness. I was just complimenting the defense!"

"What did _he_ do so well that _I_ didn't? Aren't you going to thank me for a job well done?"

"I…I-I didn't mean to…"

"I can't believe you'd side with him! Judges in this country must have no honor!"

"Princess, Princess, Princess!" Basel chuckled. "Leave the poor old man out of this. He meant no harm. Now would you like to get your guilty verdict or not? Perhaps we should introduce our suspect instead of attacking His Honor?"

"Of course! I was just getting to that, but I—" She stopped. She couldn't acknowledge having made a mistake, because that would show too much weakness (not that she didn't show plenty). Mona had an enormous inferiority complex from being overshadowed by the rest of her family. Much of her antics in court were the result of her trying and failing to save face. And Basel knew it. Much as she tried not to be, she was an open book.  
B

asel sometimes wondered if it was wrong for him to be exploiting a sixteen-year old girl's vulnerabilities for hie own amusement. But never for long. After all, she didn't exactly have the greatest personality, nor was she a shining moral paragon. Anybody who verbally abused an old man for giving a compliment deserved to be mocked. Plus, they were family, so that sort of made it into a rivalry between cousins, competing to see who could be a worse human being.  
At least that was how he justified it to himself.

In any case, she had no idea what was in store for her.

"Suspect!" she called, raising her toy scepter. "You will introduce yourself immediately!"

Finnegal squirmed. "Y-Yes…My name is Melvin Finnegal. I…I am an accountant…"

"A low-level accountant!"

Was Finnegal supposed to be introducing himself or Mona doing it for him?

"Y-Yes, Your Highness…Just a low-level accountant. I live in an apartment with my wife. And I—"

"That's enough, thank you. That man lived in the same building as the victim. Just down the hallway from her, in fact. He had been having an affair with her and had perfect access to her room! Her apartment key was found in his possession."

Finnegal slowly raised his hand. "Y-Yes… I-It's true. Th-Thank you for saying it, Your Highness…W-Well said…Might I add that you are…eh…um…quite well-dressed this morning? The gown suits you well."

Basel held back a chuckle.

Mona was less amused. "Silence, criminal! I won't have you telling ME how I look! I know! I dressed myself, thank you very much!"

The judge blinked. "B-But, my lady, he was only complimenting you!"

"No! He was patronizing me! I won't have him condescend to me! Your Honor! He is a suspect in a crime and I am royalty! I will not have him trying to warm up to me! Order him to stop it at once!"

The judge blinked again, even more confused than before. "Well… Hm. Mr. Finnegal, if you would please refrain from…complimenting the prosecution on her attire."

"Complimenting! He was patronizing me!" Mona snapped.

"Yes, yes…'patronizing.'"

Basel could tell that the judge was already getting fed up with Mona's antics. And the trial hadn't even truly started. This was going to be a fun day.

"I hope Her Highness can find it in her heart to forgive my client. It truly was rude of him to speak to her that way."

Mona and Finnegal both jerked at the comment. Finnegal looked like he was trying to say something, but nothing came out.

Mona smacked her scepter on the bench. "You think you can tell _me_ who to forgive, is that it? You keep your class in mind, Mr. Basel!"

_"Oh, Mona…"_ thought Basel, _"Sometimes I almost feel bad for doing this…But then you just have to go and remind me why I do it in the first place."_

"Princess, if you wish to show me my place, by all means, let's finish the trial. You did say it's a clear-cut case."

"It is! I spent good time preparing for this!"

The judge coughed. "I see. Well then, perhaps you'd like to call a witness?"

"Of course, Your Honor! The prosecution will call the lead detec—"

Basel interrupted. "Hold it! Actually, Your Honor, sir… If it pleases the court, my client is ready to confess."

The gallery chattered amongst themselves at this revelation. The judge was speechless. Mona herself seemed torn between shock, anger, and irritation. She seemed to suspect that Basel had something planned. To her credit though, she did manage to choke out a response.

"C-Confess…? N-Now…?"

"Yes, I'm sorry it took him so long for him to come clean."

"So long?! You twit, we haven't even started the testimony!"

"Oh, haven't we? I'd forgotten. My deepest apologies, Princess. I didn't know you were looking forward to hearing the detective's statement so much."

The judge finally found his words. "N-Now, now…I don't believe that will be necessary. Why, if the suspect is confessing, we won't need to hear the detective or any of the other witnesses that the prosecution has prepared."

That didn't please Mona one bit. She swatted her scepter across the table. The plastic's twang reverberated irritatingly, but Basel didn't acknowledge it.

"Yes, my liege?" he said, provoking a snarl from Mona across the room.

"I prepared everything for this case! I worked hard at it! Are you saying none of that matters? I demand we continue as planned!"

"Now, now, my lady," the judge started. "The prosecution's goal is to prove the guilt of the man, is it not?"

Before she could respond, Basel stepped in. "That's correct, Your Honor. If he confesses, her royal highness will have that, without any of the struggle!"

Mona banged her scepter again. "No! I won't let you just discount all of my hard work!"

The judge groaned. Mona shot him a look that presumably was supposed to convey anger, but Basel could see that it was covering her embarrassment, as if she wanted to ask "Why don't you want to hear my witnesses? Isn't everything I've worked on _good enough for you_?" Knowing her past cases, it probably wasn't, but that was beside the point.

The judge glanced sternly at Finnegal. "The defendant will give his confession. I do not see how this could possibly hurt the prosecution's case, but if what we hear is unacceptable, then I will allow a witness to be called."

Basel gestured to his client. "Mr. Finnegal, please step up."

He was already at the stand, but the little man could barely see over it. He nervously wiped a few strands of wispy hair away from his eyes. His eyes darted between the two benches for a moment before saying three short words…

"I killed her…"

"Ha! I knew it!" Mona threw up her arms in victory, apparently forgetting that she was holding something. The scepter flew out into the middle of the room and landed a few feet from Mr. Finnegal, who stared down at it, unsure how to react. Mona hurriedly motioned for the bailiff to pick it up. He did so grudgingly, and returned it to her. She pretended to cough, and then tried to act as if nothing had happened.

"So! You admit that you are guilty!"

Finnegal fidgeted. "Er… Not quite, my lady. I was going to say… I killed her… But only did so because she was plotting to kill my wife." As the gallery erupted into excited chatter, Finnegal seemed to gain some confidence. "Y-Yes! That's it! She wanted to kill Mrs. Finnegal so that we could spend the rest of our lives together. But I couldn't let that happen. She was going to go do it right then, so there was no time to contact the police. That's why I had to take it upon myself!"

That wasn't what Mona had been expecting. Her expression quickly shifted from glee to shock, and then on to fury.

"_Y-You liar!_" she spat. "You expect the court to believe _that_?!"

"I certainly do," stated Basel. "After all, it's the truth."

Upon listening to his words, Mona finally caught on to what was happening. Somehow, a confession from the suspect was going to get him acquitted. Mona screamed and twirled her scepter around like some sort of insane kung fu warrior. She looked like a damn maniac. She really did make this too easy. Basel surmised that if it wasn't for the whole family connection, he would have long ago moved onto somebody who didn't seemingly go out of her way to emhelp/em him antagonize her.

"Judge! I demand you not listen to a word either of these two buffoons say!"

A quality rebuttal. Basel wondered if she was aware how she sounded, but guessed not.

The judge shook his head. "Now, my lady… I'm not sure how things work in your country, but here we don't just ignore testimony simply because the prosecutor wills it. I expect Mr. Basel has some sort of justification for this claim."

Basel smiled. "Thank you, Your Honor. Yes, I do." He pulled up one of the case documents and slapped it on the bench in front of him. "Mr. Finnegal killed Thursday. There's no question as to that. Yet there's more to the story. We have here the police report for the arrest. All evidence points to him as the culprit. However, you can see something quite peculiar here…Right here on this line."

The judge strained his eyes to read the paper when it was handed to him. "Let me see… This is a section on his wife's reaction? It appears she was quoted as saying 'I know' in response to the arrest."

"Not the arrest, sir. The affair. Remember, my client lived in the same apartment block as the victim. It would not be hard for Mrs. Finnegal to figure out something was going on. In fact, I'd say it would be nearly impossible to _not_ find out." He shrugged mockingly at Mona, who was on the verge of having either a breakdown or a stroke. "She apparently _did_ know, so that means the prosecution's alleged motive of covering up his infidelity cannot be the case."

"You stupid… Objection! Objection! Objection, Your Honor! He's attacking the motive without even bothering to address anything else! Mr. Finnegal had the key to the apartment! The door was locked when the body was found. Would he have locked it if his goal had been to save someone? No! He wanted to hide the body!"

Basel grinned towards his client. "Mr. Finnegal, if you would be so kind…?"

"Y-Yes, Mr. Basel! Y-You see, the prosecution's right that I wanted to hide the body. Only that was because I was afraid nobody would believe me! They would all automatically assume I had done it in cold blood! I-I was so frightened! I'm terribly sorry, but I wasn't thinking!"

Basel wasn't sure just how much of the story was true. He'd discussed the case details with his client the night before and they'd both agreed that it wasn't likely Finnegal wouldn't be found responsible for Thursday's death. So, they'd settled on the next best thing, which was to get him acquitted via a verdict of justified defense of another person. It was entirely possible that it was all a big lie. Basel hadn't asked. He didn't know and he didn't care. All that mattered was that it was going to get Finnegal declared not guilty. He wasn't exactly being dishonest. He _did_ build the story off of the given evidence, and since Finnegal had never explained to him why he did it, it might be that the story was true. Ignorance was bliss.

The judge considered Finnegal's story for a moment, before turning back to the defense. "Mr. Basel, this is an intriguing theory. However, I'm wondering if you can actually back it up. The prosecution's motive is equally valid, is it not?"

"Absolutely not! Those two words said by his wife are what will exonerate him. 'I know.' She knew about the affair. Why then would Mr. Finnegal go to Ms. Thursday's apartment that day? Because he wanted to kill her and cover up the affair? No…His wife already knew, so there would be no point. It was so that _he could end the affair_. Thursday didn't like that, you see…She's wanted it to continue. And that's when she brought up the murder plot my client mentioned and he was forced to stop it."

The whole argument was flimsy enough that Mona probably could have shut it down immediately. But she was too busy having a fit to say anything useful. Basel imagined her returning to her hotel that night and thinking up a good response at two A.M., hours after the trial had finished.

The judge thought for another moment, doing his best to ignore the young girl throwing a tantrum over to his side. "I suppose both motives are possible."

"Innocent until proven guilty, sir, yes? It wouldn't be right to assume one motive just because it makes him into an evil man. I'm merely drawing conclusions from the evidence I've seen. So unless the prosecution has some ace up her sleeve…"

The judge turned to Mona, who was squeezing her scepter tight against her body, like a child holding a teddy bear for comfort. "Well, Lady Van Reaghann? Do you?"

"…N-No."

Of course she didn't. So much for all her hard work.

"Tsk. Well then! It seems I've given more justification for my motive than the prosecution has given for theirs." He quickly continued before anybody could mention that the prosecution hadn't yet had a chance to do so. "This is a story about betrayal…But it is also a story about redemption. Try putting yourself in this man's shoes. He committed the crime of adultery, that is true. However, in the end, he did choose his wife over his lover. He went to confront Thursday over it. You can imagine that he was already stressed, nervous, and probably more than a bit upset. Then Thursday brings up the idea of murdering his wife? Right then and there?

"No, this man didn't kill for some fling. He killed for love. He may have betrayed his wife before, but he made the choice to end it and keep the marriage. Then when he finally did choose to follow the right path, this adultress…this temptress/em comes and threatens to drag him back down. Could he allow that? No, of course not! She was going to murder the woman he truly loved. In the end, he has redeemed himself through that!

"He killed Diana Thursday so that he could protect Mrs. Finnegal! He's no murderer. He's a hero!"

A faint murmur spread throughout the courtroom.

The judge wiped a tear from his eye. "Th-Thank you. Perhaps you are correct."

Mona had only just calmed down when she heard the judge say that. She was furious. "Y-Your Honor! You aren't actually siding with him?!"

"I'm sorry, Lady Van Reaghann, but the defense is right. Unless evidence is given for the prosecution's motive, I can only accept this one!

"In light of everything, I'm afraid it simply wouldn't be morally justifiable to imprison this man! He needs help, not punishment. Yes, my verdict couldn't be any clearer…Not guilty!"

The court cheered.

If it had been any other prosecutor, Basel would have been amazed he had pulled it off. However, Mona was a different story. It had been kind of her to be too preoccupied with her tantrum to interrupt while he was bluffing his way through.

"Princess, that's a lovely hue there. You look just like our host country's flag."

Mona's face had gone a deep red, either from embarrassment or rage. It went quite nicely with her blue dress and white crown.

"H-How did this happen?! How is it even possible to lose a trial _before the testimony starts?!_"

"Oh, don't worry. I'm sure you did your best."

"My best…My BEST?! Y-You were just here to humiliate me! Weren't you?! _I knew it!_ You came clear across the world just to try and make me look like a fool!"

"If we had to be honest…I didn't really have to try."

Mona let out a shriek that sounded better suited for a six-year old than a teenager. She raised her plastic scepter up over her head with both arms and swung it down so hard that when it hit the bench it bent up at a ninety degree angle.

Basel had to cover his mouth to keep from bursting into laughter. "Guess Cinderella there really missed the ball this time," he thought.


End file.
